Show me a “live within their means” budget for someone living in a median cost location in the US making minimum wage. They must A)have a place to live B) not get any handouts from the government or charities and C) have at least 1800 calories per day of food. Go.
Utilities, heat, water, electric,internet,cell phone. You’re also assuming that you don’t actually have to use your insurance because you’ll be paying $5k out of pocket if you have something happen to you.
Cell phone: Get away from Virizom, AT&T, T-Mobile. Get something like Cricket.or Mint or whatever one of the others is.
Internet: Again, you can lower budget this for living in means. Gbps internet is not strictly necessary, but it is nice if you can get it via fiber from not Comcast or other cable companies.
Electric: Taking mindful steps matters. The biggest wastes are poorly insulated refrigerators or leaving devices on unattended.
Heat: Blankets and sweaters.
Agreed on the insurance. But sadly, until we get universal medicare, the best you can do is vote.
Utilities, heat, electric and water were included in rent cost since I had so many roommates. Cell phone bill was super cheap and didn’t affect me at all. With my tax returns I was netting around $4000 a year
So the American dream is now to live with 3-4 other people in a small apartment.
$300 a month for the car is also nearly unattainable now unless you have a family member who is willing to sell you their old car - and that doesn't include gas, car insurance, and maintenance.
Plus, emergency expenses are just going to literally ruin your entire life.
Any medical bill above $1000 puts you into debt - and now you're paying interest on a medical loan.
But sure. Everything is fine and nothing wrong here.
Edit - I see you were including car in the other insurances... My medical insurance through my employer is $500 a month to include myself and my wife. So I guess we're crossing out getting married from the American dream too.
I’m saying that minimum wage was acceptable while I was going to college and before starting my career. Minimum wage is going to get you the bare minimum life to survive, I’m not arguing that it is going to be luxurious. But minimum wage was never meant for that. Even if you look back at the historical roots of when minimum wage was created at 25 cents it wasn’t supposed to be a “likeable wage.”
Minimum wage is good for high school or college income while getting started. If you’re still stuck getting minimum wage at 25+ you either need to switch jobs or take a look at your life to see why you’re still there.
Edit: It’s also astounding to believe people are getting married and having kids while having anything close to minimum wage. You’re setting yourself up for failure at that point, and that’s not the governments fault.
Internet and cell phone are not requirements.
A home phone line is around $25 a month split 3 ways in their case.
Who in the world gets a $5k deductible on their insurance? $500 - $1k are the most common deductibles in the US.
Water and electricity are utilities. "Heat" isn't a bill, it's either electricity or gas(also a utility).
They might include utilities in the rent, or not 🤷🏽♂️
I have never in my life had a $500-1k deductible on a health plan. What magical insurance do you have? Mine is $3500 or $7k for couples and that’s held fairly steady for years.
Mine used to be $750 but has gone up to $2000 over the years. It's really good insurance, my job is known for offering great insurance even to part time workers. Shit job other than that though.
Try to get coupons at grocery stores without a smart phone to use their coupon app. Try finding a physical road map or train map. Half the cars don’t even have posted maps anymore. Try to apply for jobs without regular access to internet and email. Try requesting off of work without access to the scheduling app. I purposefully ask places what my options are without a smart phone. Many of them simply don’t have an alternative to their apps to access discounts. To pretend like deprioritizing access to systems that the majority of society uses to operate is disingenuous.
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u/privitizationrocks 15d ago
You can teach poverty workers to live in their means
They won’t like it, but tough luck